Laid out in the 12th Amendment, the Founding Fathers structured a system of “electors” to represent American voters in presidential elections. This establishment of democracy is also known as the electoral college. Since assuming its constitutional form in 1804 with the ratification of the U.S. Constitution, the system has delivered results in 46 of 50 presidential elections. The so called “electors” are not expected to vote for the candidate that they represent. Only 270 out of 538 electoral votes are required to win the majority. If no candidate wins majority, a contingent election is held. This default method is when the House of Representative elect the President and the Senate elects the Vice President. The winner-take-all system does not recognize the unproportional and rather unfair advantage for states with less electors to vote. …show more content…
Advocates of the presidential election have considered the idea of direct population as a tool for repairing the defects in the electoral system as it exists now. Consider the most recent election in 2000 where George W. Bush won the presidency by a recount of electoral votes, but lost in regards to the popular vote. With Florida being the key state as the election drew close, consisting of nearly 6 million voters, Florida was officially won by a margin of 537 votes (Unknown, 2002). But Florida felt betrayed, and complained about confusing ballots and accidently voting for the wrong candidate. In this essay, I will discuss the occurrences during the 2000 election, the deception felt by Florida voters, and the ways to avoid this reoccurrence in the